Meet The Dikdik, Master Of Cool

Male dikdik

The Serengeti plains hold a wealth of wildlife familiar to us all. As long as our camera trap images are clear most people have no problem identifying wildebeest, zebra, giraffe and impala. It is some of the smaller antelope that prove a bit of a problem. The smallest of the Serengeti’s antelope, the dikdik is not so well known but what it lacks in size it makes up for in a fascinating life history.

So what makes this diminutive antelope so special and how does it survive living in the lion’s den, so to speak.

It is the antithesis of the wildebeest. Instead of running as a herd of thousands the dikdik live fairly sedentary lives, instead of a constant male battle for mating rights to a harem of females the dikdik forms pair bonds that last for life. Essentially it opts for a quite life under the radar. Living in bushy scrub and kopjes gives it plenty of places to stay hidden and its ability to reach up to 42km/hour enable it to escape even the swiftest of predators. Though of course dikdik do end up on the menu sometimes.

Dik dik are territorial and use dung, urine and scent to mark the boundaries. The scent comes from preorbital glands on the face which is rubbed on sticks. All members of the family will contribute to these markers but it is the male that does most of the work. The strange twist is that males are subordinate to females in the pair bond so really the male is marking and defending his mate’s territory for her. I guess it pays to keep your missus’ happy when you pair for life.

Obviously whilst holding a territory you will have neighbours and that is certainly the case for dikdik pairs but it seems that the peace is kept by making sure you only add more dung/urine/scent to your side of the heap. Dikdik must have the most defined territory of any antelope in the Serengeti. If there is a border dispute it can lead to mass pooping; as many as 10 dung piles per 100 meters which is three times as many as a normal border.

Traditionally there were thought to be 4 species of dikdik mostly restricted to East Africa with one, Damara dikdik, found in Namibia. New work suggests that the four subspecies of Kirk’s dikdik are actually full species making Cavandish’s dikdik (madoqua cavandishi) the species we are familiar with from the Serengeti. It’s hard to keep up with systematics.

One of the most amazing adaptations in dikdik’s is their central cooling system which allows them to live in arid, hot conditions. To cool down they increase their breathing rate from 1 to 8 breaths per minute. This passes over numerous blood vessels in the flexible proboscis (that oversized long snout that makes dikdik look so odd) cooling the blood. From here the cooled blood passes back to the heart through the cavernous sinus. Due to the large surface area in the sinus as hot blood is pumped to the brain a form of heat exchange takes place allowing cool blood to be pumped to the brain ensuring that brain function is not impaired by hot conditions even if body temperature is elevated. This is a trait that dikdik share with other dessert adapted animals such as oryx and camels.

So small it may be but the dikdik is not to be dismissed without some appreciation for its ability to survive in pretty harsh conditions.